STORY EXCERPT

Jaxx had known better than to go on patrol by himself that day so long ago. He’d been pissed at the alpha again and took off on his own. He didn’t know where his brothers were and instead of going to them and talking, he’d just taken off.

There’d been rumors about poachers, but he thought he was too smart to be caught, fool that he was. He’d woken up in this fucking cage. He had no idea how long he’d been there. It had to have been weeks, but he’d lost count of the days.

After the female left, he shifted and tried to talk to the kid who was crying again. “Hey. Hey, kid. Shift so we can talk,” he said softly. He could talk telepathically with the members of his pack, but for some reason, he couldn’t get through to the kid unless they were both shifted.

“Yeah, mister,” the kid sniffled.

“I’m Jaxx. What’s your name?” he said, wishing he could at least make eye contact with the kid so he could see what kind of shape he was in.

“Bryan. I miss my mom, and I’m hungry. Why didn’t that lady bring us any food?”

“She said she would try to bring something tomorrow. Did you understand her?” They were in real trouble if the kid couldn’t understand humans when they spoke.

“I guess I wasn’t listening. I was too busy drinking. My mom always said I never listened. Now I’ll never see her again.” The kid started his keening whine again.

“Shh, shh. You’ll see her again. I’ll help you get out, and we’ll make sure you see her.” Jaxx wasn’t sure he could keep that promise, but he was going to do everything he could.

“I don’t think so, mister. She’ll be really mad at me for getting caught. She’ll yell at me again.” The little kitten started crying again.

“Bryan, you can call me Jaxx. It’ll be okay. If the men come in the morning, here’s what I want you to do.” Jaxx slowly explained to the kid how to pretend to be too weak to move so that the men wouldn’t take him if anyone even came. He’d noticed that they took the strong and feisty first. He wasn’t sure why, but he would figure it out.

Jaxx was surprised none of his pack had tried to find him. He knew the alpha Robert was lazy and worthless, but surely his brothers, Sean and Ethan, were looking for him. He hadn’t seen them the day he’d been taken, but by now they should realize he was missing, and he hoped they were searching for him.

Jaxx and his brothers all served in the Marines. Jaxx had only been discharged a few months ago when he and Robert Gilbert, the alpha for his pack and his cousin had a huge blowout, and he’d taken off on patrol. Jaxx had seen the poachers in the woods and had known they were after shifters. He’d tried to talk Robert into increasing the patrols, but Robert had insisted that he knew what he was doing, and Jaxx needed to stay out of it.

How Sean ever stood taking orders from Robert, Jaxson would never understand. Sean was so much smarter than Robert. Robert had only become alpha because his father had been alpha before him. Robert was a cousin to Jaxson, Sean, and Ethan, but you would have never known it by the way he acted.

Robert’s father James had been a brother to their dad, Lucas. When Lucas was young, Robert’s parents had been killed, and Lucas’s parents had taken him in.

Robert was better than everybody else, and he knew it. He wouldn’t take any advice from anyone, including Sean. Sean was beta because he was the oldest. When Sean became alpha, Jaxx and Ethan would be betas.

Robert would have to give up being alpha or die for that to happen. And Robert wasn’t going to give up. He was too proud and too selfish. Even if it were for the good of the pack. He wouldn’t do it.

Their pack was unusual in the fact that it was made up of many different animals, and they all got along. You didn’t often see that in a pack.

* * * *

Sean and Ethan were glad that the crazy assignment Robert had sent them on was finally over. What a fucking wild goose chase. Sean knew the alpha was insane, but this had just cemented it. Robert had sent Sean and Ethan on a secret mission to the mountains of Canada, hunting for a pack of wolves that apparently didn’t exist. They had been gone several weeks and were eager to get back home to their brother Jaxx. Jaxx was the youngest of the three brothers and the only one that hadn’t become a pack enforcer yet. That was why he hadn’t gone with them.

On the day they left, they hadn’t even had a chance to tell him they were going to be gone. He was going to be upset with them for not including him, but Robert had told them it was official pack business and only enforcers were allowed to go, and he had insisted they leave right away, not telling anyone where they were going.

As they got closer to home, they noticed something was wrong. The scent was off. There should have been overwhelming scents of all the shifters in the village, but there wasn’t. What the fuck was going on?

The village looked abandoned. There was trash everywhere, and some of the homes looked like a bomb had been set off.

“What the hell happened?” Sean asked, glancing around. The place looked like a war zone. They’d only been gone a few weeks.

“Jaxx!” Ethan yelled, watching for movement.

“Jaxson Gilbert!” he called again even louder.

ADULT EXCERPT

Jaxx slid his arm around her shoulders and pulled her a little closer. “We are going to our village. It’s located in the Rocky Mountains, just this side of the Canadian border in Montana. It’s a small town called Cotton Wood Creek. My family has been living there for hundreds of years. I hope you will like it.”

“Is it a big town?” Melody asked, snuggling into Jaxx. Ethan slid a little closer to her and set one of his huge hands on her thigh.

“Just a few hundred people,” Jaxx answered, adjusting his arm around Melody.

“Are they all like you? Shifters?” She lifted her head and looked into his eyes. They were gold with flecks of brown and mesmerizing. She could get lost staring into those depths.

“Yeah, most of them. We have a few humans, but mostly shifters. Why don’t you try and rest now? It’s a long ride.” Jaxx settled her a little closer to his side, and Ethan laid a soft blanket over her.

Melody didn’t fight them. She hadn’t had much sleep since she’d brought Jaxx and Bryan home and was running on empty.

Melody closed her eyes and soon drifted off to sleep. The dream began with her lying in a bed. The room was not familiar, and she wasn’t sure where she was. She glanced around but couldn't identify anything. Then she heard the voices, male voices.

“She’s beautiful. Everything I’ve always thought she would be.” Melody turned her head toward the voice. It was Jaxson. He stood with his two brothers, and they were all looking down at her.

The men continued talking, praising her, saying how attractive she was. Then they were sitting on the bed beside her and touching her. Jaxson leaned down and took her mouth in a hot kiss. It felt amazingly like the one he had given her in her bedroom, and her body began preparing for him.

Jaxx released her, and Sean took his place, thrusting his tongue into her mouth and taking possession.

Ethan moved over her and began stroking her breasts with his hands, cupping them and weighing them. He lifted them for his brothers. Jaxson leaned down and fastened his hot mouth around her breast, sucking the tip and nipping it with his teeth.

Sean began doing the same with her other breast, and Melody let out a moan, panting with the excitement of it all.

Ethan released her breasts, leaving them to the attention of his brothers while he began to kiss his way down her body, parting her legs and lying between them. He continued kissing over her stomach and down to her mound, parting her folds and running one finger through her lips there.

Melody’s body was responding, ready for more. His finger circled her clit, and she let out another moan, arching and lifting her body to his mouth. He covered her clit with his mouth and pushed one finger into her.

Jaxson and Sean abandoned her breasts to watch as Ethan licked and sucked her clit until her body was arching off the bed, reaching for the release he could give her.

Chapter Fourteen

Jaxson was starting to doze off when he felt the little female move beside him. He turned his head and watched as her lips parted, and she wet them with her little pink tongue. Her hands were fisted in the blanket, and her breathing was labored.

“Do you think we should wake her? Is she having a nightmare?” Ethan asked from her other side.

“I don’t know. Her face doesn’t look like she’s in distress. Maybe we should wait a few minutes,” Jaxson answered, watching Melody with concern.

They were silent a few minutes when Sean said from the seat behind them, “You know what’s happening?”

“No,” Jaxson replied softly and started to touch Melody’s shoulder to wake her up.

“Watch her for a few more minutes. You don’t want to wake her up yet. You wouldn’t want to be disturbed.” Sean leaned forward and moved the hair off of Melody’s face.

Jaxson and Ethan watched as Melody continued arching her body and began softly moaning.

Suddenly it hit Jaxx. “Do you think she’s dreaming about one of us?”

“I hope so,” Ethan responded when he figured out what was going on.

“I feel a little guilty watching,” Jaxx said but didn’t take his eyes off Melody.

“Not me, I’m enjoying this,” Ethan said and reached down to adjust his cock in his pants. “I can’t wait until she’s between us in bed. I want to hear her make those sounds when my cock is buried deep in her pussy. I want to see those lips wrapped around my cock. Watch her face as we take her ass for the first time.”